Live events and activities attract much attention—in person and through media. For example, live sporting events continue to be a popular method of entertainment among the masses, among advertisers, and among those who engage on social media. An example can be seen from the steep increase of Super Bowl viewership and the more than 137 million viewers of NFL games each year. Even more people watch episodes of streamed movies, TV shows, recorded or live events, yet while they do it, they are fully unaware of others who are at the same time consuming the same event or activity. As part of this viewership, more information about the plays, players, actors, participants and context is being captured and made available. Examples of streamed or broadcasted events or media which are delayed or recorded include eSports, political debates and other types of entertainment such as streaming personal videos or published images. Almost anything can now be “live” to a viewer. Over the past decade, there has been a significant increase in the investment, interest and depth of data and analytics for sports, eSports, and any other type of entertainment-focused fan.
All of this data increases fan and consumer knowledge of what is happening on the field, behind the scenes, on the screen, in the competition or amidst a broadcast. Yet, the consumer's real-time opinion hasn't received equal attention. There is currently no digital platform that enables fans of a show, a team, a sport, a game, activity or event to express their real-time, micro-moment opinions with groups of friends then in real time be able to quantitatively analyze those responses. In sports, for example, where officials have significant subjectivity in the fouls or other decisions they call, fans commonly have very different and many times unresolvable viewpoints. But fans don't have a platform on which they can express their immediate, subjective views of the officiating of a sporting event and then quickly understand the viewpoint of hundreds, thousands, millions of others regarding that same “micro-moment.” In eSports, fans have opinions of what actions players should be making or could have been taken. Yet, they are unable to quickly express these opinions in the moment. In the event of fans watching talent, variety or award shows, or even entertaining dramas, where these viewers have opinions about what is happening as they watch, they are limited by current methods by expressing their opinion via qualitative means—by texting out their opinion. It is also difficult to quickly and clearly understand the opinions of others as consuming the typed, qualitative expressions of others is timely and can't be done to truly understand opinion of a “micro-moment” from a mass audience—or even a small audience in quick, back-to-back time frames, as occurs frequently in live events or activities. These and other drawbacks exist with known technologies.